Mary Balogh lets her characters chaotically guide her through a story (works for us!)

Joyce: Welcome back to HEA, Mary! Please tell us a bit about your new release (in a new series!), Someone to Love.

Mary:Someone to Love begins with the death of the patriarch of a prominent family, which in turn reveals a scandalous secret in the form of a daughter no one knew he had … and the inheritance he left to her.

Joyce: What can readers expect from the new series?

Mary: They can expect another family saga — the Westcotts. The central group consists of the widow and three adult children of the recently deceased Humphrey Westcott, Earl of Riverdale. His only son, Harry, the new earl, is only 20 years old so is under the guardianship of his mother and his paternal aunt’s stepson, the Duke of Netherby. But catastrophe is about to strike the family after Harry’s mother sends his solicitor off to Bath on a secret mission to find and make a final settlement on the young woman she knows her husband kept at an orphanage there, presumably his daughter by a mistress. At the start of Someone to Love, book one of the series, the solicitor is back from Bath and has called a meeting of the whole Westcott family, including aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins — and the Duke of Netherby. He has brought Anna Snow from Bath to attend the meeting, too. The eight-part series arises from the revelations made at that fateful meeting.

Joyce: Do you write by the seat of your pants, or do you carefully plot your stories? Has that changed at any point in your career or maybe it changes depending on the book?

Mary: I have never been able to plan a book ahead of time. I have never been able to write a synopsis ahead of time. Fortunately, most of my editors have understood that and have been willing to take me on trust. My books are driven by character, and although I can know a lot about my characters before I begin, I can’t possibly KNOW them until they start thinking and speaking and feeling and acting and reacting to other characters and events. Sometimes I am deep into a book before I know everything there is to know about them. I am constantly going back and rewriting in order to incorporate my new knowledge and understanding of the main characters. By the time I finish a book, I have probably read through it and revised it a hundred times or more. The plot is quite immaterial to me. It is merely the vehicle by which the hero and heroine come to self-knowledge and self-acceptance and the ability to give and receive love and recognize in each other the love of a lifetime and beyond. It is a bit of a chaotic way to write, but it is the only way that works for me — and it certainly keeps me on my toes!

Joyce: Would you like to share a favorite moment from your writing career?

Mary: One day stands out in my memory. I was spending a few days in Bath, England, with my mother, as I used to do each year while she was still alive. It is my favorite place in the world. On this particular day there was a tour bus in town — a group of American writers and readers who were doing a Regency tour of England. I even knew a few of them. My mother and I joined them for tea in the Pump Room, and then they invited us to a private Regency dance in the Upper Assembly Rooms in the evening. It was one of those unique and enchanted events that could never be replicated.

Mary: I always make a large thermal mug of coffee when I start writing in the morning. It lasts me for an hour or two. No food. I doubt I would notice what I was eating, and that would make it wasted calories!

Joyce: What would be your dream vacation?

Mary: I think a river cruise on the Rhine and/or Danube with my whole family would be just lovely. On the whole, however, I am not much of a traveler. I am very happy at home in the familiarity of my own surroundings — Saskatchewan, Canada.

Joyce: Is there an idea out there that you wish you’d thought of?

Mary: No. If I had thought of a great idea, I definitely would have used it.

Joyce: What TV show or other activity interferes with your writing schedule?

Mary: Nothing. My writing schedule takes precedence over all else. Writing is my job. It is how I earn my living. The fact that it also gives me great pleasure does not detract from the seriousness of that fact. When I was teaching I could not take a day off when something else took my fancy. The same applies now that I am at home writing. Self-discipline is important when one is self-employed.

Joyce: What’s coming next?

Mary: The Westcott family series, which is beginning with Someone to Love in November 2016, will be eight books long. Nos. 2 (Someone to Hold) and 3 (Someone to Wed) are already written. I am taking a break, perhaps for the whole winter, before starting on book four. That is the plan, anyway. So far in my career I have never succeeded in taking a break lasting longer than a month or so. I seem to lack the willpower to do so!

Joyce: LOL. I hope you get to enjoy your break. Thanks, Mary!

Mary: You are very welcome. It has been my pleasure.

About Someone to Love:

The New York Times bestselling author of Only a Kiss launches a new series with the death of an earl and the revelation of a scandalous secret…

Humphrey Westcott, Earl of Riverdale, has died, leaving behind a fortune that will forever alter the lives of everyone in his family—including the daughter no one knew he had…

Anna Snow grew up in an orphanage in Bath knowing nothing of the family she came from. Now she discovers that the late Earl of Riverdale was her father and that she has inherited his fortune. She is also overjoyed to learn she has siblings. However, they want nothing to do with her or her attempts to share her new wealth. But the new earl’s guardian is interested in Anna…

Avery Archer, Duke of Netherby, keeps others at a distance. Yet something prompts him to aid Anna in her transition from orphan to lady. As London society and her newfound relatives threaten to overwhelm Anna, Avery steps in to rescue her and finds himself vulnerable to feelings and desires he has hidden so well and for so long.